No, the pandemic did not help climate action
As the deadly COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill, greenhouse gas emissions plummeted by a record amount. Yet, in the grand scheme of climate change, this historic reduction was but a blip with little impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Indigenous peoples’ centuries-long fight against pandemics
For centuries, indigenous peoples worldwide have suffered from epidemics and pandemics brought to their communities by outsiders. This danger only intensified with increased global travel, trade and transportation. In the colonial era, epidemics served as a deadly tool of conquest, leading, in some cases, to the annihilation of entire indigenous populations. Today, they continue to threaten indigenous peoples across the world.
COVID-19 recovery, focus of UN General Assembly special session
Nations united on Thursday for a special session of the UN General Assembly to survey the wreckage of the COVID-19 pandemic, reflect on the best response, and forge a path to better days ahead.
Recognize and protect rights of persons with disabilities, UN chief urges, marking International Day
The United Nations is commemorating the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, on Thursday, calling for greater inclusion for persons with disabilities, and recognizing and protecting their human rights.
COVID-19 can spark new generation of social protection measures: UN chief
While COVID-19 has wiped out important development gains in mere months, with extreme poverty rising for the first time in decades, the pandemic could spark the transformations needed to achieve stronger social protection systems, the UN Secretary-General said on Tuesday.
Five things you need to know about living with a disability during COVID-19
Every seventh person alive today – more than 1 billion people in total – lives with some form of disability. Despite being so numerous, persons with disabilities are still overwhelmingly overlooked in times of emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ensure safe and hygienic sanitation for all, UN urges, marking World Toilet Day
The UN is marking World Toilet Day on Thursday, in a bid to reinforce the need for equal access to sanitation for all. More than a quarter of the global population lack basic facilities, and more than three billion people live in homes without basic hand washing facilities, soap and water.
Internet Governance Forum calls for global unity to bridge digital divides
Advancing digital inclusion and narrowing digital divides will build a strong recovery as the world strives to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, the 15th annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) heard today as it concluded after a series of high-level roundtable discussions.
To recover better from COVID-19, we must invest in… forests
As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on our economies and societies, the United Nations today called for the inclusion of forest financing in efforts to recover from the pandemic.
Taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis
Every 19 November, the world comes together for World Toilet Day, to celebrate toilets and raise awareness about the fact that 4.2 billion people live without access to safely managed sanitation. The day is all about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. See how you can be part of online efforts this year, using #WorldToiletDay.
Can we measure the value of nature?
Can a boggy peatland really be more valuable than delicious cheese? As UN DESA Statistics Division launches four new publications on the System of Environmental‑Economic Accounting (SEEA), we talk to Alessandra Alfieri, Chief of the Environmental Economic Accounts Section, who explains that the world is not all about dollars and cents, but political decisions often are.
Internet Governance Forum calls for bridging digital divides, harnessing the Internet to support human resilience and build solidarity amid COVID-19
Never before has the Internet proven to be such a vital lifeline in maintaining economic and social ties, as the world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic. The high-level segment of the Internet Governance Forum opened today, with participants underlining the critical importance of digital technologies in supporting human resilience and building solidarity to respond to the challenges posed by the coronavirus.
Frontier digital technologies can help us back on track to achieve the SDGs
The COVID-19 pandemic is a humanitarian as well as a development crisis. The measures taken to contain the virus have shown some successes, but they have devastated economies, healthcare access, and schooling. Millions are newly unemployed, hitting the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest. Health services are looking for new ways to reach those in need and who can no longer afford to see a doctor. Children are forced to attend school remotely, threatening their long-term education and their social wellbeing.
The new normal is digital
With half of the global population under lockdown and with 90 per cent of students out of school at one point in 2020, the Internet has become our classroom, our workplace, our meeting space and even our dancefloor. The 2020 Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum is gathering this month to ensure that the Internet continues to connect us and not drive us apart.
Will European Central Bank’s unconventional policies cause hyperinflation?
Monetary policy has ventured even further into uncharted territory over the past years. Gone are the times when changes in interest rates were the sole policy variable that drew the attention of the public and financial markets. Today, central bank policy pronouncements are as much or even more about unconventional policy tools—such as asset purchase programmes—than they are about interest rates.